1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a full-fashioned weaving process for the production of a single-piece woven garment which can accommodate and include sleeves. The garment is made of only one single integrated fabric which has no discontinuities or seams. Additionally, the garment can include an integrated infrastructure for collecting, processing, transmitting and receiving information, giving it intelligence capability.
2. Background of the Art
In weaving, two sets of yams known as warp and filling yams, respectively, are interlaced at right angles to one another on a weaving machine or loom. Traditional weaving technologies typically produce a two-dimensional fabric. To fashion a three-dimensional garment from such a woven fabric traditionally requires cutting and sewing of the fabric.
Tubular weaving is a special variation of traditional weaving in which a fabric tube is produced on the loom. However, tubular weaving, until now, has not been available to produce a full-fashioned woven garment, such as a shirt, because it was unable to accommodate discontinuities in the garment, such as armholes or sleeves, without requiring cutting and sewing.
Co-pending application U.S. Ser. No. 09/157,607 filed Sep. 21, 1998, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,145,551 to Jayaraman, et al., discloses a full-fashioned weaving process for the production of a woven garment having armholes. The garment is a single integrated piece in which there are no discontinuities or seams, and the armholes result from the weaving process itself, not from cutting or sewing. The process of the Jayaraman patent, however, does not provide for the weaving of a full-fashioned garment having sleeves.
A need therefore exists for a process to produce a full-fashioned woven garment with sleeves which eliminates the need for cutting and sewing fabric parts to fashion the garment. It is such a process and product to which the present invention is primarily directed. When the full-fashioned weaving process of the present invention is employed, the additional step of sewing side scams and sleeves required for a two-dimensional fabric is avoided.
Alternatively, co-pending application U.S. Ser. No. 09/273,175, filed on Mar. 19, 1999 by Jayaraman et al., discloses a fabric or garment which includes an integrated infrastructure for collecting, processing, transmitting and receiving information. The garment functions as a "wearable motherboard," which, by utilizing the interconnection of electrical conductive fibers, integrates many data-collecting sensors into the garment without the need for multiple stand-alone wires or cables. The information may be transmitted to several monitoring devices through a single electronic lead or transceiver.
Utilizing the weaving technique of the present invention and the interconnection of electrical conductive fibers or optical fibers or both of the co-pending Jayaraman applications, it is possible to produce a full-fashioned woven garment with sleeves which incorporates an integrated infrastructure for collecting, processing, transmitting and receiving information.